Jean Hartmann, Microsoft
Given the large number of components and dependencies, substantial time and resources are expended by Visual Studio teams in integrating and validating these components into the product.
In the past, the flow of code was often hampered by component teams not efficiently and effectively qualifying their code contributions or reverse integrations (RIs). As a result, dependent component teams started stalling, as breaking changes proliferated with respect to product and test code – they paid a heavy price in terms of failure analysis. Those dependent teams also became wary of merging those unstable code contributions into their own code bases as part of their forward integrations (FIs). In short, the flow of code became unpredictable, resulting in a code base that was often in an unstable state.
In this paper, we describe some of the challenges that we faced in reinvigorating the code flow, while ensuring that code quality was not compromised. We more closely examine some of the issues that resulted in stagnant code flow, discuss some of lessons gleaned from a test perspective and focus on the new strategies, processes and tools we are developing to make integration testing more efficient and effective. The paper uses examples and data from this “fearless FI” initiative to illustrate and emphasize key points
2010 Technical Paper, Jean Hartmann, Abstract, Paper, Slides
